UN Ambassador Samantha Power told NBC News that the current Ebola quarantine announced this past week for New York-New Jersey was “haphazard and not well thought out.” Power also said US Ebola workers should be “treated like heroes and not stigmatized.”
Wow!
USA Today reported:
Aides to President Obama are criticizing decisions by three states to quarantine people who are returning from Ebola-stricken West Africa.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and United Nations ambassador Samantha Power said quarantines may discourage health workers from traveling to West Africa to help block the disease at its source.
“If you put everyone in one basket, even people who are clearly no threat, then we have the problem of the disincentive of people that we need,” Fauci said on ABC’s This Week. “Let’s not forget the best way to stop this epidemic and protect America is to stop it in Africa, and you can really help stopping it in Africa if we have our people, our heroes, the health care workers, go there and help us to protect America.”
Power, who is traveling in West Africa, told NBC News that quarantine plans in New York, New Jersey and Illinois are “haphazard and not well thought out,” and could discourage health workers from going to West Africa in the first place.
Ebola has a 70% mortality rate.
